Vision

To work with young Cambodians and connect them to the skills, opportunities and inspirations needed to reach their potential.

Key Goal:

To increase the percentage of Kralanh graduates accessing skilled employment.

Our history

PEPY was founded in 2004 through a fundraising bike ride with a goal to build a school. A year later, PEPY was registered as an official international NGO, supported by partner company, PEPY Tours. PEPY was involved in many aspects of education over the years eventually focussing on Scholarships and youth leadership programs…

Read more about Our History

PEPY was founded in 2004 when a group of young travelers decided to organize a bike trip across Cambodia and raise funds to build a school. The first school they funded was in Chanleas Dai, Cambodia, in Siem Reap Province. A year later, in late 2005, the group organized a volunteer trip to mark the opening of the school and launch their five week bike ride across Cambodia which they had called PEPY, “Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself” as they were teaching about the relationship between the environment and health.

A few months later, they registered their own Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in the US and, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, registered as an International NGO in Cambodia. Over the years they transitioned from funding school construction, to teacher training and support programs, to a community-based school support system involving training and supporting local school boards, to eventually pulling out of school-based programming and focusing on university scholarships and youth leadership programs. At the same time, a partner tour company was launched, PEPY Tours, to support fundraising efforts and provide development education opportunities for visitors. You can watch a video about this transition here:

Supporters over the years came from all around the globe, from family foundations, corporations, granting agencies, and individual donors. In addition to the hundreds of supporters who joined PEPY Tour’s trips and helped fund and promote PEPY’s work, PEPY also operated an internship program. Members of the extended PEPY family are now based in China, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Japan, Myanmar, Dubai, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and all over North America and Europe. (Let us know if you were a part of the PEPY team and we missed you! There must be many more countries represented in our midst!)

Eventually, as PEPY’s founding team was preparing to leave Cambodia, the board and senior management team worked to identify a plan for localizing PEPY’s operations. That started with a senior management committee made up on PEPY’s management staff, transitioned into the promotion of PEPY’s current ED, Kimline Nuch, to her leadership role, and culminated with PEPY forming a local NGO registered with Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior, supported by a 100% Cambodia-based board.

The local entity took on the name PEPY Empowering Youth and as of January 1, 2015 have taken over independent leadership of their education and youth leadership programs. The PEPY US board remains involved in supporting and promoting PEPY Empowering Youth’s work, and is delighted to see that, over a decade after a little bike ride across Cambodia started, PEPY’s work continues with a fantastic team.

Read more about PEPY - Transitioned to a local NGO

As of January 1, 2015, PEPY has transitioned into a local Cambodian organization with a new website which is located here: PEPY Empowering Youth website.

The new local entity, PEPY Empowering Youth, with a Cambodia-based Board of Directors, continues to deliver the same education and youth development programs that PEPY oversaw in 2014, and retains the same leadership, headed by Executive Director Kimline Nuch. Localization followed several years of a gradual transition from a US-founded entity to a Cambodian-led organization, and we are delighted that this transition is complete as of 2015.

This transition to local governance and leadership comes almost exactly ten years after PEPY was named and began raising funds and nine years after PEPY-funded programs first began. PEPY Empowering Youth will continue to focus on improving the quality and sustainability of the educational and youth leadership offerings that had been established since the seeds for PEPY were planted in late 2004.

The Board of Directors of PEPY’s US registered entity will continue as supporters, funders, volunteers, and friends and are excited for the future of PEPY Empowering Youth.

Lessons Learned

Over the decade that PEPY operated in Cambodia, prior to its transition to a local NGO, the organization offered a range of educational and youth leadership programs. As a part of this transition, we thought it was important to collect the lessons learned and resources created from some of our core programs and share those with other people and organizations who might be able to learn from them.